1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a micro coaxial cable connector used in liquid crystal display (LCD) application, and particularly to such connector having improved latches for reliably securing the connector to a complementary connector mounted in an LCD panel.
2. Description of Related Art
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,305,978 B1, 6,273,753 B1, 6,338,652 B1, D456,779 S, D456,780 S, D456,777 S, D457,138 S, and D444,130 S disclose low profiled micro coaxial cable connectors. This type connector is used to transmit signals between a mother board in a base of a notebook computer and an LCD panel of the notebook computer. The micro coaxial cable connector must securely engage with a complementary connector in the LCD panel, because the LCD panel is frequently pivoted relative to the base of the notebook computer. In the old design, the micro coaxial cable connector has no locking device for latching with the complementary connector when the two connectors are connected together. This cannot ensure a reliably secure connection between the two connectors, whereby the cable connector may be unintentionally disconnected from the complementary connector, and the signal transmission between the two connectors is broken. The parent application, i.e., U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/199,713 disclosed a micro coaxial cable connector having a latch device for securely engaging with a complementary connector to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art. The present invention is a further improvement of the connector shown in the ""713 application.
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide a micro coaxial cable connector having latches for securely engaging with a complementary connector.
In order to achieve the object set forth, an electrical connector comprising an insulative housing, a contact set received in the housing, a shield enclosing the housing, and a pair of latch devices assembled to the housing for locking with a mating connector. The housing comprises a base portion, a plurality of passageways defined in the base portion, and a pair of retention portions at a pair of lateral ends of the base portion. The contact set is assembled to a rear end of the housing and comprises an insulative insert, a plurality of signal and grounding contacts received in the insert, and a grounding bar assembled in the insert. The signal and grounding contacts extend forwardly into the passageways of the housing. The grounding bar has a plurality of grounding fingers electrically connecting the grounding contacts. The grounding plate is located above the contacts set for grounding. The pair of latch devices is assembled to the retention portions of the housing and each latch device has a latch portion for latching with a mating connector. The latch devices are pivotably mounted to retention posts integrally formed with the retention portions. The latch portions extend through passageways defined in guide posts integrally formed on front ends of the retention portions.